The present invention relates generally to electronic circuits, and, more particularly, to a voltage translator with a driver circuit for output slew-rate control.
Integrated circuits, such as system-on-chips (SoCs) and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), include multiple voltage domains that operate at different voltage levels. A voltage translator is used as an interface between the voltage domains to resolve voltage incompatibilities. The voltage translator level shifts a voltage signal output by a first voltage domain, which operates at a first voltage level, to a second voltage level at which a second voltage domain operates.
An output voltage signal of the voltage translator changes based on an input voltage signal of the voltage translator. When the input voltage signal transitions from a first state to a second state, the output voltage signal may experience a high slew rate due to the distance (i.e., a long trace-length) between the voltage translator and the second voltage domain. The high slew rate results in an overshoot in the output voltage signal, which is undesirable because the voltage overshoot can damage circuitry in the second voltage domain and also can create significant EMI issues. A known technique to eliminate overshoot is to use a clamping circuit to clamp the overshoot in the output voltage signal. However, clamping circuits increase the cost and complexity of the voltage translator and have a limited effect on EMI suppression.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a voltage translator with a driver circuit that controls a slew rate of an output voltage signal of the voltage translator, thereby preventing overshoot in the output voltage signal.